The Most Post-Christian Cities in the U.S.

The Most Post-Christian Cities in the U.S.

Ever wonder what the most post-Christian cities are in the U.S.?

Neither have I, but, admittedly I did find it interesting to see where my current city of residence (Philadelphia) ranked on the list.

I’ve said it so many times before that I’m beginning to role my eyes in response to myself when mentioning the decline of church attendance, religious affiliation, belief in God, prayer and Bible-reading…

Yeah, it’s a thing that’s happening. And, as much as so many of us “churched folk” have gotten use to hearing or reading about the imminent death of the Church we can’t just ignore how big of a deal this is; which, is why I’d say this research is so interesting…

On to the research…

“The Post-Christian Metric”…

So, what exactly qualifies someone as “post-Christian”?

In short, Barna developed a metric to determine how “heathen” (my words not theirs) your city is or isn’t. They used 16 points of criteria…

• Do not believe in God
• Identify as atheist or agnostic
• Disagree that faith is important in their lives
• Have not prayed to God (in the last week)
• Have never made a commitment to Jesus
• Disagree the Bible is accurate
• Have not donated money to a church (in the last year)
• Have not attended a Christian church (in the last 6 months)
• Agree that Jesus committed sins
• Do not feel a responsibility to “share their faith”
• Have not read the Bible (in the last week)
• Have not volunteered at church (in the last week)
• Have not attended Sunday school (in the last week)
• Have not attended religious small group (in the last week)
• Bible engagement scale: low (have not read the Bible in the past week and disagree strongly or somewhat that the Bible is accurate)
• Not Born Again

In their words, “To qualify as ‘post-Christian,’ individuals had to meet nine or more of the following factors. ‘Highly post-Christian’ individuals meet 13 or more of the factors (out of these 16 criteria)[1].”

Per usual, to save you time…

Here are the most interesting tidbits I found in Barna’s research…